Academic Decathalon

The California Academic Decathlon Association has driven high school students to maintain excellent grades, while preparing for the rigorous work of the outside world. These students receive awards by earning exceeding scores in subject tests, speeches, essays, and interviews in a highly competitive event.

On February 1st, schools from the Manteca and Stockton school districts participated in the annual Academic Decathlon competition held at Lathrop High School. From MUSD, “Decathletes” from Manteca, Sierra, and Lathrop High have been preparing for competition since August of 2019. Lathrop High even offered its students an Academic Decathlon class held during the fall semester, open to students serious about becoming decathletes.

Hillary Pangburn, one of the Acadec coaches and English teachers at Lathrop High, commented that as part of Acadec, students support each other in the Decathlon but they also help each other succeed in

their individual core classes.

To prepare for the decathlon, students are assigned subjects such as math, literature, economics, art, social science, science, and music to become near experts in the subject. They complete practice packets, tests, and projects to learn all they can within their given subject. Although Acadec students concentrate in a special subject area, each team member participates in the Super Quiz portion of the competition which requires cross knowledge as every correct answer goes toward points for the team.

All Decathletes are to participate in the essay, interview, and speech portions of the competition. In the speech portions of the competition. In the speech portion, students given deliver a planned and impressive speech in front of a panel of judges in addition to a two-minute impromptu speech. Each decathlete participates in a seven minute interview and has fifty minutes to write an expository essay.

Before giving their prepared speeches, Lathrop High School decathletes were given the opportunity to go classroomto-classroom and present their speeches aloud. Senior Hailey Ngo explained that, “We only want the honest truth about our speeches; the feedback only helps us improve.”

Schools who also participated in the Annual Region Academic Decathlon were Stockton Early College Academy and Middle College, McNair, Lincoln, Escalon, Kimball, Merill F. West, Mountain House, Millenium, Tracy, Sierra, and Manteca High School.

On the morning of the competition, students from each school are required to take seven subject multiple choice tests, timed at 30 minutes each. This is the first event to the competition.

The event after the subject tests is known as the “Super Quiz,” where a number of Decathletes are brought to the floor of the gym to represent their school. These starters are split up into three divisions based off of their overall grade point average: Varsity (0.00-2.99 G.P.A.), Scholastic (3.00-3.74 G.P.A.), and Honors (3.75-4.00 G.P.A.). Within these divisions are two teams: Team A and Team B. Starters are to answer 14 multiple choice questions on a series of subjects in order to accumulate points for their school. Points are collected by their team’s overall test scores, in addition to the essay, interview, speech, and super quiz portions.

Ending the competition is an award ceremony; this is eagerly awaited for by all decathletes and coaches.

“We don’t usually sleep when studying for this day,” commented Bernice Vilches, Lathrop High School senior, when asked about the rigor that goes into studying for competition. “But the most memorable part of being in Acadec is creating bonds with my teammates.”